Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés O.F.M. (April 12, 1738 – July 18, 1781) was a Spanish Franciscan friar who served as a missionary and explorer in the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain . He explored much of the southwestern region of North America , including present day Sonora and Baja California in Mexico , and the U.S. states of Arizona and California . He was killed along with his companion friars during an uprising by the Native American population, and they have been declared martyrs for the faith by the Catholic Church . The cause for his canonization was opened by the Church.
18-821: Garcés was born April 12, 1738, in Morata de Jalón , Aragon , north-central Spain. He entered the Franciscan Order about 1758 and was ordained a priest in 1763 in Spain . Garcés travelled to New Spain ( Mexico ) and served at the Franciscan college of Santa Cruz in Querétaro . In 1768, when the King of Spain expelled the Jesuits from their extensive mission system in northwestern New Spain (within present-day Baja California , northwestern Mexico, and
36-647: A location in the Province of Zaragoza is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama is a Spanish mission located in Tubutama , Sonora , first founded in 1691 by Eusebio Francisco Kino . The mission was founded in 1691 by Eusebio Francisco Kino . It served as a headquarters for the local Jesuit missions; its visitas were Mission Santa Teresa de Atil and Mission San Antonio de Oquitoa . The original mission complex
54-507: A new pueblo (secular settlement), in the homeland of the Quechan peoples (Yuma or Kwítsaín). Garcés tried to keep peace between all parties. The formerly peaceful rapport with the Quechan was lost due to Spanish settlers allegedly violating the treaty with the native peoples, resulting in the losses of crops and farmlands. In July 1781, Garcés, Díaz and their fellow friars were among those killed in
72-680: A violent uprising at the Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer , known as the Yuma Uprising and Yuma Revolt . Garcés' body was later reinterred at Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama . He and the other friars killed at those missions are considered martyrs by the Catholic Church. The El Garces Hotel , named in Francisco Garcés' honor, is the historic 1908 Santa Fe Railroad station and Harvey House hotel 'oasis' located in
90-531: Is interiorly adorned with two altars, paintings in gilded frames, and a small side chapel. In the sacristy are three chalices, a pyx, a ceremonial cross, ceremonial candle-holders, censer, three dishes and cruets, all of silver, vestments of every kind and color and other interesting adornments for the altar and divine services. According to the Census Book, which I have here before me, there are forty-five married couples, twelve widowers, six widows, eighteen orphans,
108-726: The Gila River , and the Colorado River from the Gulf of California and Lower Colorado River Valley to the Grand Canyon . He encountered and recorded accounts of the Native American tribes in their desert and riparian valley homelands, and established peaceable relations for the Crown, including with the Quechan , Mojave , Hopi , and Havasupai . Many journeys were explorations on his own in
126-595: The southwestern United States ), Garcés was among the Franciscan replacements. He was assigned to Mission San Xavier del Bac in the Sonoran Desert , near present-day Tucson , Arizona . The expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spanish King set in motion a sequence of dramatic events in the missions. The Franciscans from the college of Santa Cruz in Querétaro took over responsibility in the Sonoran Desert missions region in
144-550: The Anza Colonizing Expedition route. Therefore, there are several landmarks for Francisco Garcés in Bakersfield, California: Garces Memorial High School , the city's Catholic high school; and on Chester Avenue Garces Memorial Circle , with a memorial statue of Garcés. The original platted east–west streets of the 1905 Las Vegas Township are all named for significant North American explorers, beginning with Stewart on
162-705: The City of Needles . It is located in eastern California above the Colorado River, a site Garcés passed through during the 1776 Anza expedition. The El Garces Hotel was built by the Santa Fe Railroad under contract with the Fred Harvey Company . It is designed in an elegant Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts style, and the El Garces was considered the "Crown Jewel" of the entire Fred Harvey chain. Garces National Forest
180-538: The Colorado and Gila Rivers , some seventy leagues distance from this Mission. The village at Tubutama is situated on a broad lowland of good and fertile fields where few Indians cultivate their individual fields and communally plant wheat, Indian corn, beans and other crops. The house of the Father Missionary is decent and roomy with an adjoining garden of quinces, pomegranates, peaches, and other trees. The church
198-553: The condition of the missions in the Upper and Lower Pimería Alta . This was his report on Tubutama as translated by Kieran McCarty: The Mission at Tubutama, with one outlying mission station, lies eight leagues to the west and a little to the north of the Mission of Sáric . To the south lies the uninhabited land of Lower Pimeria and to the north are the Papagos and the other pagan nations up to
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#1733093208166216-574: The deserts. He accompanied soldier-explorer Juan Bautista de Anza part way in both his large overland expeditions: the 1774 De Anza Expedition - first to reach Alta California's Pacific coast from the east; and the 1775-76 Anza Colonizing Expedition, which traveled as far north as San Francisco Bay . Garcés also crossed the Mojave Desert on the Mohave Trail and then the Old Tejon Pass and explored
234-494: The north, then Ogden, Fremont, Carson, Bridger, Lewis, Clark, Bonneville, Gass, and finally Garces on the south. St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral has a stained glass window dedicated to Fray Garces. Morata de Jal%C3%B3n Morata de Jalón is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza , Aragon , Spain. The main attractions are the Condes de Argillo Palace (1676) and the annexed parish church. This article about
252-529: The number of souls in all one hundred seventy-six. Felipe Guillén served as resident missionary from 1774 until he was killed by Apache raiders in 1778. Francisco Antonio Barbastro oversaw yet another rebuilding in the 1780s. The arched entrance reflects the Mudéjar style of Islamic architecture; however, the interior transept is dedicated to the Passion of Christ , and the altarpiece has sculptured instruments of
270-593: The present-day Mexican state of Sonora and the U.S. state of Arizona . Meanwhile, other Franciscans from the college of San Fernando in Mexico City under the leadership of Junípero Serra , were assigned to replace the Jesuits in the Baja California missions of the lower Las Californias Province. Garcés became a key player in this effort, conducting extensive explorations in the Sonoran, Colorado, and Mojave Deserts ,
288-522: The southern San Joaquin Valley in 1776. The eastern part of the route Garcés took from the Colorado River across the Mojave Desert is known to four-wheel-drive adventurers today as the Mojave Road . In 1779–81 Garcés and Juan Díaz established two mission churches ( Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción and Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer ) on the lower Colorado River at Yuma Crossing , as part of
306-456: Was destroyed in 1695 in the Pima Revolt . The missionary then in residence, Daniel Januske , was absent during the attack. The church was rebuilt in 1699, and again in 1706. It was destroyed again in 1751 in the second Pima Revolt , while under the supervision of Jacobo Sedelmayr . His successor, Luis Vivas , saw it rebuilt by 1764. Antonio de los Reyes on 6 July 1772 submitted a report on
324-640: Was established by the U.S. Forest Service in southern Arizona on July 1, 1908, with 78,480 acres (317.6 km) from portions of Baboquivari, Tumacacori and Huachuca National Forests. The name was discontinued in 1911 when it was combined with Coronado National Forest . The first Tejon Pass (original) between the Mojave Desert (and New Spain) over the Tehachapi Mountains to the southern San Joaquin Valley floor (future site of Bakersfield ), California, had been discovered by Garcés in 1776, eastward from
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